Ammunition for firearms typically includes a bullet seated in a cartridge case. The case is a hollow cylinder with an open end sized to tightly hold the trailing edge of the bullet, and a socket, or base, end that receives a primer which contains a small amount of combustible material. When a firearm is discharged, a firing pin or hammer strikes the exposed end of the primer igniting the combustible material in the primer socket.
The primer ignites gunpowder inside the cartridge case to propel the bullet. The cartridge case remains intact after firing, with the spent primer wedged in the end of the case. The case may be discarded or reused.
Many firearm enthusiasts reload their ammunition to reduce cost, control quality of reloading, and to have the ability to customize ammunition. The ability to reload cartridge cases is particularly important to those who may fire numerous rounds during practice sessions. Reloading involves several steps, including removing the spent primer, reforming the case to a desired shape and size, and inserting a new primer into the empty primer socket. Devices have been developed in the past to perform all these functions, either sequentially or simultaneously on multiple casings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,606 for example, discloses apparatus that removes the spent primer and pushes a replacement primer out of a disk-shaped holder to transfer the primer to the primer socket. The primers are in chambers aligned peripherally about an edge portion of the disk, and the disk is incrementally rotated to sequentially align target receptacles with a pusher pin that transfers the primer from the target receptacle to the primer socket.
The disk-shaped primer holder of the '606 patent provides a rigid structure that retains primers in an interference fit to minimize handling of the primers and improve safety. The disk may be removed and replaced when empty, however, it also is difficult to determine from the position of the disk how many of the primers have been unloaded because the disk is symmetric about its central rotation. The disk also inherently requires unused space toward the center of the disk that is unavailable for storing primers. Further, the '606 patent device is bench mounted, which does not provide the convenience and portability often desired which may be provided by a handheld tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,905 discloses bench mounted apparatus for advancing an elongate strip holding primers sequentially through the press for transferring primers from the strip to the cartridge case. Although the '905 device does permit reloading of primers from a rectilinear strip, as opposed to the disk-shaped primer holder of the '606 patent, it still is disclosed in the context of a bench mounted unit which does not provide the convenience and portability of a hand-held unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,223 discloses a form of hand-held cartridge priming device. However, it relies on a reservoir of loosely held primers which must be fed one-by-one through a channel to a priming station to be loaded into the cartridge primer socket. Loose primers such as this have a variety of disadvantages. The '223 patent attempted to cure a safety problem by providing a safety guard which could separate the single primer to be loaded into a cartridge case from other primers held in the feed channel and reservoir.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved tool for inserting primers into ammunition cartridge cases, the tool being hand-held for convenience and portability and capable of using rectilinear priming holding strips.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a device that is easily and conveniently operated by a single hand of a user, such that gripping and releasing of a tool body and interconnected handle positions a primer in the primer holding strip in alignment with the primer socket of an ammunition cartridge, presses a primer from the primer holding strip into the primer socket, and upon release of the gripping pressure causes the primer plunger to retract and the primer holding strip to advance to position another primer in position to be loaded into the primer socket of a subsequent cartridge case.
A further object of the invention is to provide such a hand-held device that simply and efficiently reloads primers into spent cartridge cases.
Finally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel holder for receiving and holding the base of a cartridge case in a reloading process.